DAVIES, EDWARD (Iolo Trefaldwyn; 1819 - 1887), poet and eisteddfodwr

Born at Moel-y-frochas, near Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire. His parents were the first members of the Calvinistic Methodist society at Rhos-y-brithdir. He received a smattering of education at the school kept by Morris Davies (1796 - 1876) at Llanfyllin, but was forced to leave to work on the land at home. He soon left the farm, however, and obtained employment first at Llangynog quarry and then at the Rhyd-y-mwyn lead works. Then, for a time, he was a coal merchant in Liverpool, but this venture failed. He now settled in Wrexham, where he became traveller for a firm of Scottish publishers. He was a faithful frequenter of eisteddfodau and a regular competitor - too regular, indeed, to produce any work of real merit. In 1870 he won the chair at the Liverpool Gordofigion eisteddfod for his pryddest ' Goleuni ' (Light). There was considerable demand for his services at local eisteddfodau and competitive meetings as adjudicator, reciter, and singer of penillion. Shortly before his death he published a book of verse, Caneuon Iolo Trefaldwyn. He could turn out an excellent englyn and was one of the best epitaph writers of his day. He was for twenty-one years precentor of Zion C.M. chapel, Wrexham. He died 4 January 1887 and was buried in the new cemetery at Wrexham.

Author

• Dr Enid Pierce Roberts

Sources

• R. Williams, Montgomeryshire Worthies (1894), 36
• Cymru (O.M.E.), iii, 269
• Bye-Gones, relating to Wales and the Border Counties, 1887

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q19635477

Published date: 1959

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